How you can help Chuck

Some folks may not like this post but......

How can you help Chuck?  Stop providing content, links and downloading illegal Chuck episodes.

Why should this matter?  For the WB and NBC, it is a negative in the key decisions that are made whether to renew a bubble show.

NBC - Chuck has been showing troubling declines in the key metrics that NBC uses in their decisions.  In the bubble decisions every source of viewership is measured.  Nielsen is not the only source!  They do use other sources of data like Comcast, Time Warner, and the satellite companies.  They also use the data from the online sources primarily NBC.com since they get the revenue from the ads.  When Josh Schwartz tweets to watch LIVE this is the reason why.  WATCHING LIVE MATTERS BECAUSE ALL DATA IS USED.  It does not matter if you aren't a Nielsen Family!

When you provide the illegal content, especially after the East/Central airing (Cripes), the viewers on the West/Mountain don't have the incentive anymore to either view it on their cable/satellite system, online, or buy it from iTunes/Amazon.  The download links are still being provided even though the episodes are available now.  The sales of Chuck through iTunes/Amazon is not a concern for NBC but it is for the producer of the series Warner Brothers.

Warner Brothers - They have the most to lose here along with us the Chuck viewers.  They have cut the fee to the bone most likely.  Who knows if they are taking a loss just filming Chuck?  The only way for them to recoup it is the possible syndication, broadcast fees in foreign countries and DVD/Digital sales.  If everyone is downloading it illegally why watch it or buy it?

What prompted me to write this?  Season 4 of Chuck did show up in the seasons list of iTunes in the top 10 for almost 2 weeks but the individual episodes have not broken the top 10 once this season.  I can't explain the disparity of the Season 4 sales vs the individual episodes that were offered after Season 4 appeared.  Chuck did show up in the unfortunate listing of top pirated episodes which does Chuck Season 5 no favors.  It will probably show up again.

I don't think NBC has made a decision about its fate yet due to the state of the pilot season (pilots have a high failure rate).  If a few of the pilots are picked up and a lot of existing shows are cancelled then Chuck has a chance as filler mid season or a backup to a failed new series.  However, that is an optimistic outlook on my part because at this point numbers are the bottom line.

It may be unfair to base the entire renewal on illegal downloading because the show has bled viewers throughout its run.  To be fair, broadcast television as a whole has been bleeding viewers for years.  My point is even with ratings that Chuck has today it hasn't been cancelled yet (with a month to go till upfronts) and it needs all the help it can get to justify a Season 5.  With the top listing of pirated episodes, declining online(NBC provides this data on its website)/broadcast viewers and the seeming decline of iTunes sales you can't blame me for drawing those conclusions.

I should have written this a while ago because it may be too late.  The damage probably has been done already.  I don't foresee this changing anything because the nature of today's loosey-goosey outlook on ethics and morals.  People will do the free thing even if it kills their favorite show.

Bottom line:  People have to watch the show live/online or buy a copy.  Pirating will kill it for sure.

Chuck related Ep 4.22 information

I went on a Warner Brothers tour yesterday.  It wasn't Chuck centric but there were fellow Chuck fans on the tour so several things were highlighted.  The cast were shooting on Stage 10 (Castle and other sets) with the others being:  Stage 4 (Apartment set/nerd herd cage) and Stage 17 (the Buy More) and they were going to film at the village backlot.  The house in question was being prepped for an explosion later that afternoon or evening.  There was a fence around around the house but it was removed (you can see what looks like a darker shade astroturf close to the street).  They also removed items that were in the house and installed the special effects windows (so you don't have glass shrapnel going everywhere).

That's it for the 4.22 information but here is where I talk about last years Chuck only tour.  This little block of houses (the village is much bigger but have other types of buildings and not houses) was used in Chuck, Mentalist, Gilmore girls among others.  I still plan to go more in-depth about that Chuck tour and I used this tour to refresh my memories about that.  The following pictures were taken when it was bright and sunny and not cloudy and rainy like it was today :).

The house above is located right next to this one below and you will recognize the carport where Chuck confronted his Stanford professor in Chuck vs the Alma Mater.

In that Chuck scene you can see a blue house across the street with a little shed off to the left of it (see pic below) - that blue house was also used in Chuck vs the Ex.  In that scene Chuck bounces the ping pong of the window and before he does that you can see that carport in the background.  Right next to the shed you see a yellow house that is right across from the target house (1st pic above) - that yellow house was used in Chuck vs the Tic Tac (Chuck went to defend Casey's ex-fiance).

That's it for that little slice of Chuck points of interest.  Here are some oddball pictures from todays tour.  This time we went into the prop department (we didn't last Nov - we went to Costumes and according to the last tour and this tour that is incredibly rare and just not done - just like a tour of Stage 10 (4 and 17 are used by the tour)) and saw a lot of the props.  Our tour set today was brand new Stage 25 (built in 2008) and it currently houses the jail, court set, judges chambers and the corridors of the municipal building for Harry's Law.

This particular chandelier was bouncing around until they found out it was Tiffany and they have two of them (estimated worth $1 million for each one).  It is no longer rented out but they can be used for Warner productions but I think they discourage that.

This chandelier (they have two) has been bouncing around Warner Brothers for a while and they have no idea how they came about them.  They found out it was a set of six that was made for Tsar Nicholas (the last Tsar of Russia) and was a ........ (I don't remember the name of the maker but it is on the level of Tiffany).  Two were destroyed, two are in Museums and two are in the prop department of Warner Brothers.  It is too expensive and too complex to be rented out anymore and it's estimated worth is $2 million a piece.